Complementing Eddie Walsh’s Flashpoints interviews on China’s role in Syria, I had the opportunity to spend late August in Beijing, conducting interviews and participating in roundtables with Chinese academics and government officials.

Looking for a place to invest in China? How about Xinjiang, or the "New Frontier," as the northwestern autonomous region is known in Mandarin? Home to the Uighur people--a Turkic group that briefly helmed two self-proclaimed republics called East Turkestan in the 1930s and '40s--Xinjiang seethes with resentment toward the oppressive rule of China's ethnically Han leadership.

Top American universities are competing to establish themselves in China, with new campuses and research centers springing up quickly. Nearly 40,000 undergraduates from China study in the U.S., more than from any other foreign country.

At the beginning of August, two young men embarked on an American road trip with a difference. It was the first day of Ramadan, the month when Muslims across the world fast during the hours of daylight.